Gift fic for quinnsan
To: quinnsan
From: imifumei
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Title: A Very Kis-My-Christmas
Pairing/Group: HiroYoSuke, TamaMiya, SenKaido
Rating: PG-13, for innuendo
Warnings: None
Notes: Happy Holidays, quinnsan! I hope you have as much fun reading this as I had writing it! Thanks to my beta and T for support!
Summary: Kisumai has a Secret Santa. Everybody cheats (except Yokoo).
At the last Monday-morning meeting of November, Fujigaya was going to make an announcement. He'd sent phone-mails to each of his group-mates the night before to make sure they'd all be on-time and to raise the tension for his big moment.
He came into the meeting room late deliberately. He wanted to make sure everyone would be present for the announcement of his truly fantastic idea and he didn't want to have to wait for anyone to get to make it.
He strolled in at five past eight carrying two travel packs of coffees and passed them out with a huge grin splitting his glowing face to a chorus of five confused grumbles and Kitayama's soft, snuffling snore. What? He could be nice when he wanted to be, especially if there was something in it for him.
Finally he pulled the knit cap off his head, fluffed his hair up, and turned his best winning smile on his group, blinking pointedly at Yokoo until he shook Kitayama gently awake.
"Guys," Fujigaya began grandly, "This has been a big year for us work-wise." Fujigaya paused for effect.
When he didn't immediately continue, Kitayama quietly grumbled, "You woke me up for this? That's not breaking news, Taipi."
"However!" Taipi rolled right over him, "A series of recent events has indicated that we need to step up our game on our relationship." He looked around the room waiting for someone to ask him to elaborate.
"What relationship, Taipi?" Senga obliged.
"Our Member Ai," he explained.
This statement was met with a few incredulous looks and a fine view of the top of Kitayama's head as he snuggled his face back into his arms.
"You've got to be kidding." Tamamori complained.
"Nope. We've definitely got to work on it. It will make us a better group, and I have an idea for how we can do it." He offered them a triumphant look which didn't even flag in the face of Yokoo's intensely skeptical raised eyebrow and drawling challenge.
"What, exactly, do you propose?"
Fujigaya smiled and crowed exultantly, "Secret Santa!"
The collective groan of Kis-My-t2 resounded all the way down the hall followed closely by Yokoo's disapproving, "Really, Taipi?" while Tamamori whined "This again? Didn't we have this argument last year?" and Nikaido accused "This is stupid! You're just being lazy!"
Fujigaya pressed his hand to his chest in feigned affront and he scoffed, "Lazy?! I spent all night coming up with this plan!"
"You did not." Kitayama grumbled from within his folded arms.
"Well, all the way here, at least."
Nikaido piped up, "You just don't want to have to buy Christmas presents for everybody."
"We go through this every single, stupid year," Tamamori continued, "and every year you decide you'd rather receive presents from everybody even if it means you have to buy presents for everybody."
"Well, yes, but-" Taipi tried to explain before Miyata, always on hand with the benefit of the doubt, cut him off.
"Hang on, hang on. I don't get it. How will buying a present for only one other member increase our Member Ai?"
At this, Kitayama raised his head, looking to Fujigaya like a perplexed and sleepy puppy, "Actually, that's a good question. How does that work, Taipi?"
"Well, I was thinking that if we spent the time to think really hard about getting something really special for just one person, it would be a better bonding experience than getting just any old thing for six people."
"That sounds cool." Senga cheered.
"Yeah, it makes a lot of sense, surprisingly." Yokoo agreed.
"Hey, what do you mean 'surprisingly'?" Taipi pouted, but it was half-hearted because Miyata and Kitayama were slowly nodding their agreement with Yokoo and he could practically feel the imminent satisfaction of getting what he wanted.
When everyone was in agreement, Fujigaya cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Fantastic. Now, I think we're going to need a few ground rules. First of all, we need to cap this at a reasonable price. It's not a competition for most extravagant, so let's say 5000 yen?"
"Taipi is cheap" Senga whispered but he was giggling, so Taipi ignored the remark.
"5000 sound good?"
Everyone nodded.
"And," he continued, "it has to be a real gift that your recipient can open."
"As opposed to?" Yokoo questioned.
"As opposed to favors."
"Favors?" Miyata asked, confused.
"He means you can't give your recipient sex. You know, we aren't the ones who need to be told that," he inclined his head toward Senga and Nikaido with a knowing look.
"No?" Fujigaya challenged, looking from Miyata's face back to his and blinking innocently, earning a riotous blush from Tamamori.
"Well, anyway-" Tamamori ducked his head and motioned for Fujigaya to continue.
"Anyway. . .where was I? Oh yes, when should we do the exchange? I vote for Christmas Eve."
"Christmas Eve is a date night." Yokoo mentioned.
Taipi inhaled sharply, looking briefly to Kitayama, and asked "Do you expect to have a date, Watta?"
Kitayama's eyes surreptitiously slid over to gauge Yokoo's reaction.
"Not as such, no. I'm just saying. Some people might want to, you know, have a date. . . on a date night. . . is all."
Taipi surveyed the room and came to the same conclusion as Kitayama so he nodded along when Kitayama pronounced, "I genuinely doubt that anyone here intends to spend Christmas Eve with anyone who isn't here."
Miyata grinned. "Let's have a group date," he suggested, nodding so vehemently that despite the round of bashful hem-hawing, no one could say that didn't sound like a great idea.
Taipi decided to move on, "Now we just have to decide who gets to buy for whom."
"I want Nika!" Senga chimed in.
Nikaido smacked him over the head and explained, "That sort of defeats the purpose of it being secret, moron," quietly adding, "but that's nice, thanks."
Yokoo grabbed Fujigaya's hat up from the table and tore his day's itinerary into seven pieces, writing a letter on each one.
"Here, Taipi," he offered. Fujigaya passed the hat around for everyone to take a letter.
Taking the last one in the hat, he warned, "And remember, it's a secret! You can't let anyone know who you have! Definitely not the person you are buying for, okay?"
When he got six 'Okay's, he nodded to himself, satisfied that not only was he doing something nice for his group, but with the time he'd save not doing all the stupid shopping necessary to buy gifts for six people, he could spend the time doing something really important, like buying things for himself.
This was all going to work out great.
*Ki*
Kitayama would have disagreed. He had pulled Tamamori's name from the hat and was none too happy about it because he had no idea what would be best to get for him. After lots of agonizing, he'd narrowed down the possible gifts to two and neither was particularly inspired. He had just about resigned himself to the fact that he'd be getting Tama-chan either some socks or a personalized travel mug. At least he knew that Tama traveled enough to have a use for a travel mug, and everyone needed socks, right?
He was in a practice room worrying over whether he was the worst group leader ever for not being able to come up with a better gift, and practicing of course, when Nika came in.
"Kitamitsu, I have a problem."
"That's not very surprising."
"Aren't you going to ask me what the problem is?"
"Okay sure, what's the problem?"
"It's stupid Taipi."
Kitayama smirked, "Then I maintain my previous statement. 'That's not very surprising'."
"I don't know what to get for him."
"Aren't you supposed to be keeping it a secret who you're buying for?"
"Oh yeah. Well the only one who cares about that is Taipi, right? Besides. I already know that Tama-chan is buying for Miyata and Miyata is buying for Senga and Senga won't tell me who he's buying for, but I'll get it out of him sooner or later. But anyway I need help."
Kitayama sagely nodded, neglecting to mention how much he agreed with that statement or the fact that now he too knew who at least half the group was buying for.
Nika piped in, "Got any ideas?"
"I don't know. Why don't you just think about what Taipi likes best and get him something along those lines?"
"You mean besides being the center of attention?"
Kitayama couldn't exactly argue with that, but it gave him an idea. "What about that?"
"What about what?"
"What about giving him the gift of being the center of attention?"
"You mean like those coupon books that kids make for their moms in kindergarten? 'This coupon entitles you to one day of' fill-in-the-blank?"
"Oh hell no. Taipi would milk that for all it was worth. He'd be insufferable."
"So what do you mean then?"
"Pay someone else to do it."
"A Fresh Junior?"
That was seriously unlikely, Kitayama thought. "Maybe a spa would be better."
"That's a great idea! I'll buy him a facial or something! They can pamper him like the princess he acts like he is." He grinned widely at Kitayama. "Thanks! You're the best, Mitsu."
"Hey, sure. I do what I can." he called to Nika who was bounding happily out the door of the practice room. "Now if only I could come up with a great idea for Tama."
*S*
For as hard as they often worked, hardly anyone had lazing about down to the art form that certain members of Kisumai did. One afternoon found Kitayama snuggled into a broken down armchair in the green room of a photo shoot, Tamamori stretched out with his head on one arm of the couch while Senga sat on the opposite end, pillowing Tamamori's legs across his lap.
Senga was busy complaining that he had no idea what to get 'Nika's stupid face' for Christmas. Tamamori was reading a fashion magazine and making occasional 'uh-huh' noises to prove he was listening. Kitayama was failing to effectively zone-out. He didn't think he could take much more of Senga's whining.
Finally he offered his irked opinion, unbidden. "How can you possibly be having this much difficulty? You two are almost always together! You can't tell me he has never mentioned anything at all that he wanted in all the time you've spent together."
"But Taipi said no sex."
At that Kitayama and Tamamori broke down into rollicking, side-splitting laughter that Senga could not help but join in.
"Okay, okay, Ken-chan, that's fair." Kitayama finally quieted his laughter long enough to say. "But there must be something."
"I can't think of anything."
Tamamori giggled, "Just because you can't think of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
Senga pouted. "Oh yeah? Well what's your awesome idea for Miyata?"
Tamamori blushed. "I don't want to talk about it."
One of Kitayama's eyebrows shot up, "You know the 'no sex' rule applies to you too?"
"It's not sex!" Tamamori exclaimed defensively. "It's just that. . .it wasn't exactly my idea and it's sort of embarrassingly sappy."
"Whose idea was it?" Kitayama inquired.
"My mom's."
Senga scoffed, "Oh man. Help from your mom? That has to be cheating."
"You're just jealous because your mom didn't give you any great ideas." Tamamori countered and turned back to his magazine.
"Ugh! If I can't give him myself, what am I going to give him?"
Kitayama thought about it for a second while he watched Senga stretch cutely and rub his eyes with balled fists. "Something equally needy and cuddly perhaps?"
"Oh! Check out these jeans with skulls on the pockets," Tama thrust the magazine in front of Senga's face. "Aren't they cool? See how they bunch up at the bottom? I bet they don't come long enough to do that on me."
"Thanks for your concern about my problem, Tama-chan," Senga said sarcastically. "Oh, those are nice jeans." He handed the magazine back to Tamamori, turning back to Kitayama, "what do you mean 'equally needy and cuddly'?"
Kitayama's ears pricked up at the mention of something Tamamori was genuinely interested in. "What? I don't get to see the jeans?"
"Oh, sorry, sure," Tamamori apologized and tossed the magazine to him.
"Oh, those are nice." Kitayama, as non-nonchalantly as possible, made a note of where he could obtain said jeans, quickly getting interrupted by Senga impatiently leaning over and tugging on his shirt.
"Mitsu? What do you mean 'equally needy and cuddly'?"
"I mean why don't you get him something that has most of the characteristics that he seems to like in you?" At Senga's blank look he continued, "Maybe a kitten?"
Senga's eyes lit up, "Really? A kitten? I can do that? Oh a little kitten to cuddle and play with, is that really okay?"
"Well, you might want to check with his parents, but yeah. I mean who doesn't love kittens?"
"That's a great idea, Kitayama." Senga glowed with the prospect of getting a new kitten for all of five minutes before he found something new to whine about. "I'm bored. We've been sitting here for ages. Hey, you guys wanna practice the new dance moves?"
They had been doing nothing but running from appointment to appointment for months, ever since their tour had been announced. Now, for one blessed half-hour, they had nothing to do but sit and wait for their turn to pose for the camera. The thought of getting up to practice dancing was not especially a pleasant one. Kitayama and Tamamori shared a horrified look and answered him in unison, "No."
*M*
Everyone knew Senga loved to dance, that was no secret. But, Miyata thought, when you dance a lot you sweat a lot. Sweating a lot was something that Miyata spent a lot of time thinking about. It always made him feel a little uncomfortable and although he didn't mind the guys making fun of him, sometimes he really wished it wasn't about something he had no hope of controlling.
So, he decided, he'd get Gacchan a present that would help make sure that he never had to feel uncomfortable like Miyata himself sometimes did. It was important, so it wouldn't matter if he went a little over-budget. Besides, as an added bonus, Senga would look even better than when he danced in his regular tracksuit. Everyone loved to watch Gacchan dance, so really, this was a nice gift for the whole group.
*Y*
Buying for Kitayama is not difficult at all, Yokoo thought. There was something he always needed a new one of. Maybe if he didn't have such violent tendencies in bed, he wouldn't break so many of them. The only thing Yokoo couldn't decide was whether it would be better to spend his 5000 yen going for something really high-end and state-of-the-art, which would probably be most enjoyable for Mitsu, or several low-end ones that wouldn't be as pleasant but definitely serviceable and there would be back up when he broke them, which seemed inevitable.
In the end, he opted for both; one really nice one and six cheap 100-yen-store ones that he was sure Mitsu would barely even get up for. Yokoo kind of wanted to be there when he used the nice one, though. He was pretty sure he'd be able to coax Mitsu into letting him stay the night, even more likely if he invited Taipi to their little slumber party. Even for all his grumbling, Mitsu could almost never say no to Taipi. Hardly anyone could.
*F*
"This sucks," Fujigaya moaned and flomped onto the couch on top of Kitayama's prostrate form.
"Oi. Get off my back." Kitayama grumped toward the pillow into which his face was now being pressed a little harder.
Fujigaya wiggled around to get a little more comfortable and rested his chin on hands folded between Kitayama's shoulder blades, pouting and ignoring him. "You know, if I'd known I was going to get Watta, I'd never have made that stupid rule."
"The rule about not telling anybody at all who you are shopping for? That rule?" Kitayama groused.
"No, the sex rule."
Kitayama shoved at Fujigaya until he could get up and look him in the face. "Come on. We've known each other for years. He can't possibly be that hard to buy for."
Taipi threw himself backwards, melodramatically, over the arm of the couch, "Not hard, impossible. There's nothing he wants."
"Nothing at all? Maybe he'd like one of those creepy vacuum robots."
"Actually, that's not a bad idea, but do you really want to feed his cleaning obsession?"
"Good point. Well, you could just get him a new pair of-"
"I am not getting him something lame like pants."
"Hey. At least I didn't cheat."
Taipi gasped, offended. "Who cheated?"
*T*
Tamamori cheated. He hadn't meant to. He was just minding his own business, sitting at his kitchen table looking over some catalogs of silly gadgets that he was pretty sure Miyata would get a good chuckle out of when his mom came in offering hot chocolate and asking what he was doing..
"Shopping."
"I'm sorry?" she asked, "maybe I didn't hear correctly, did you just say you were shopping? Wasn't it only two weeks ago you were telling me that you were never going shopping again and blaming your father and myself for, what did you call it, 'the curse of both height and fashion sense'?"
"Well I didn't ask to be tall and have great taste in jeans, did I? Anyway this isn't for me."
"I suppose not. What are you shopping for?"
"I got Miyata for the group's Secret Santa and I don't know what to get for him. We're supposed to be increasing our Member Ai."
Tamamori-san peered over Tama's shoulder at the catalog. "And you think you're going to do that with a pair of sunglasses that double as an mp3 player or a fancy foot massager?"
"Well, no, but-"
"If it's supposed to be heartfelt, you could make him something."
Tama got a vision of kindergarten crafts with macaroni and tempera paints and groaned, "Mooooom! I can't make him something. We're grown men, you know." he punctuated his statement with a definitive sip of mommy-made hot chocolate.
"Sure you are. Why can't you make him something?"
"Umm, hello? Because 'Merry Christmas, here's a pasta mosaic of your face' is completely lame?"
Tamamori-san nodded, barely containing her mocking grin, "Yes, that would be lame."
Tama made a 'so you see the problem'-face and then his mother continued, "But that's not really what I was thinking. Miyata-kun loves you boys all very much and he's very proud to be part of your group. Why don't you make him a scrapbook of tour paraphernalia? I have tons of clippings and photos you could use."
Tama considered it. It was exactly the kind of thing that Miyata's sappy side would really appreciate but he was definitely going to need help with it and was pretty sure that there was some kind of unspoken rule that having your mommy help make your present was cheating. Oh well. Taipi would get over it.
*2*
Finding a high-class day spa that would give a facial for under 5000 yen was impossible. He'd have to cheat. However, Nika decided, probably if there was enough lotion and massaging involved, Taipi wouldn't think overly hard about how much this had cost. And what Taipi didn't know couldn't hurt either of them.
*******
On Christmas Eve, Tamamori-san invited them to gather at Tama's house and the seven of them weren't together five minutes before Senga started shifting uncomfortably. "When are we doing presents?" he asked Fujigaya.
Taipi began to shrug when he realized that they were all looking at him expecting an answer.
"It's your show, Taipi." Kitayama urged. "When do you want to do presents?"
"I want to do them now," Senga pleaded, holding his package as gingerly as possible behind his back.
"Now's good. What order should we go in? Oldest to youngest?" Senga frowned. "Tallest to shortest?" Kitayama frowned. "What? Kisumai order? I don't know. Why do I have to decide?"
"I want to go first." Senga claimed. "Please? It's important."
Yokoo spoke up. "I think we should play rock-paper-scissors to see who goes first. Then we can just go from there; the winner can give his gift and then his recipient can give his, and so on."
"Great. Sounds good." Taipi agreed.
Senga pouted when he lost but turned cheerful again when Miyata won and handed him a gift.
He tore into the paper and opened the box. Touching the fabric in contained, he looked to Miyata, "It's clothes, is it special?" He lifted the filmy black shirt and shorts out of the box and held them up to his body. "It looks special."
"It's a special fabric for athletes. It breathes really well and wicks sweat away from the body to keep you cool. It's for when you dance."
"It looks cool. Can I try it on now?" He was already heading for the bathroom to change and in no time at all came out clad from shoulder to knee in skin-tight black nylon fabric that left his arms bare and nothing to the imagination. He did a few test moves, not wanting to get to into it and disturb the Tamamoris' living room.
"How's it look?"
Five faces gaped openly back at him. Miyata was grinning so hard Senga could barely make out his eyes.
"It looks great Gacchan."
"Thanks!" Senga pulled his sweatpants on over the black shorts and sat back down next to Nikaido. "It's my turn now, right? I get to go?"
The question seemed to pull the others out of their mostly dirty thoughts and Fujigaya cleared his throat, "Yes. Go ahead, Senga."
"Yay." He turned to Nikaido and handed him his box gently, warning, "Don't shake it."
"Okay," Nika smiled and pulled the lid from the box to look inside at a jumbled mass of blue knit, then frowned at Senga. "This is your old scarf."
"What?" Senga peered over the edge of the box and saw the cinnamon-colored tuft of tiny tail peeking out from amidst the folds of what certainly was, as Nika had said, his old scarf. He breathed an audible sigh of relief and insisted, "Look harder."
Nika lifted the box and tilted it to one side, causing a flurry of skittering and the smallest sounding mewing anyone had ever heard as a bundle of blue scarf and warm brown fuzz fell out of the box and into his lap. The kitten squeaked a little, cuddled right into Nika's lap, and went back to sleep. Nika could only gape.
"It's a kitten." Senga informed him.
"I'd never have guessed." Nika answered blandly. "Just what I need in my life, another fuzzy little brown thing to train."
"And cuddle," Senga added. "Do you like him?"
Nika watched the little thing stretch and twist in his lap, revealing a soft pale belly, rubbing his paws over his eyes and yawning. "He's so cute and little. Of course I like him."
"I've named him Ken-chan."
"You can't name him for me, he's mine!" Nika scooped the little kitten up to snuggle against his cheek, "And you definitely can't name him after yourself. Can he, little guy? No he cannot."
"But-"
"We're not talking to you." Nika stated and stuck his tongue out, giggling. "It's Taipi's turn." Nikaido reached around Senga to grab an envelope from his bag and hand it over.
Fujigaya exclaimed over how jealous they would all be of his glowing skin after his facial and gave Yokoo his gift.
"Oh nice! You know Shige has one of these. I can set it to vacuum my room the whole time I'm gone! Thanks, Taipi." Fujigaya nodded and surreptitiously patted Kitayama on the back.
"Now for Hiromitsu." Yokoo got up to carry over a tower of boxes, each wrapped in a different color of paper. "Start at the top and work your way down."
Kitayama was pleased and amused until he started opening packages. "It's an alarm clock! Haha, very funny, Watta."
"Keep going."
Kitayama did, getting progressively more annoyed as he opened boxes getting progressively larger but still containing crappy 100-yen-store alarm clocks. By the fifth one he was ready to give up. "Thanks, Watta. I'll just open the rest of these later."
"No! You have to keep going."
Kitayama sighed and glared at the sixth stupid cheap alarm clock in a row before setting on the last package. It was much heavier than the first six, so he had a little hope for it. When he finally got the paper off he almost shouted because it was, in fact, another alarm clock, but this one was really cool looking.
"It's the best alarm clock ever." Yokoo explained. "First of all, you can choose from like twenty different alarm sounds or record your own, plus, each time the snooze comes on, it's progressively louder, and it actually moves away from you every time you press the snooze."
"What? Actually gets up and moves?"
"Well I think it has wheels or something, it's not possessed or anything. Ooh! And it shows you the weather and temperature outside and automatically syncs itself to the atomic clock in England someplace or another, and it projects all of that information onto the ceiling of your room so you don't even have to roll over to look at it."
"Wataru, this is the coolest alarm clock ever."
"Didn't I say?"
"Thank you. Really."
"No problem."
"Man my gift is going to look even more lame next to this." He pulled a box out from behind the couch and handed it to Tamamori. "It's nothing much."
Tamamori opened them and shrieked, "Oh my god! These are those awesome skull jeans." Running his fingers over the rhinestone skulls adorning the pockets, he marveled and then gasped when he picked them up and they looked long enough to fit hit properly. "They're longs. Thanks!"
"It's nothing." Kitayama smiled.
"Nothing?" Taipi exclaimed. "Don't let him fool you, Tama-chan. I went with him to buy them. We went to four stores and you should have seen the sales girls faces when he asked them for extra longs-"
Kitayama crossed his arms over his chest, "Shut up, Taipi."
"I don't think I've ever seen a girl laugh that hard before," Fujigaya finished.
"Well, thanks, Mitsu, I really wanted these." Tamamori beamed at Kitayama and he couldn't help but grin and shrug in return.
Everyone was laughing at Taipi's impression of the shop-girls when Tama shouted, "Oh! I almost forgot! I haven't given Miyacchi his gift. Why didn't you say something?"
"Everyone was having fun."
He scoffed and presented Miyata with a large book, carefully tied with wide purple ribbons.
"What is it?"
"Just open it!"
Miyata untied the ribbons and opened the book, smiling warmly at the inscription inside the front cover. When he met Tamamori's eyes and said "Me too," Tama blushed.
"What's it say?" Senga asked nosily from his place in Nikaido's lap.
"Nothing," answered Tama but Fujigaya could see over Miyata's shoulder and read it aloud.
"It says 'Toshiya, this year has been great. I hope we have many years like this together in our future. Love, Yuta' Aww, that's so sappy."
Tamamori said nothing.
"What's in the book, Miyata?" Yokoo asked.
"It's a scrapbook!" Miyata began turning pages. "It's a scrapbook of our whole year."
Kitayama leaned over Fujigaya so that he could also look over Miyata's shoulder, "A Kis-My Scrapbook?"
"Yeah." He turned a few more pages before handing the book over to the pile of Kitayama, Yokoo, and Fujigaya, who were encroaching on his space to laugh at the pictures of their group over the course of the last year. He left them to it and crossed the room to where Tamamori was helping his mother set out refreshments.
He hugged Tama tightly from behind, resting his face against the side of Tama's but addressing his mother. "Thank you for the book."
"It's no trouble, Miyata-kun. I'm glad you like it. Will you be staying the night?"
"Mom."
"Well? If you had already invited him, I wouldn't have to ask. Now, it's a date night, so your father and I have dinner reservations. Have fun, but don't let the boys upset the furniture too much. We won't be back until late." Then she turned to address Miyata, "You're certainly welcome to stay, okay?"
"Thank you, Tamamori-san."
Tamamori-san offered him an indulgent smile and left the room. Miyata turned Tama-chan around to face him an kissed him, quickly and sweetly. "Love you, too."
Tamamori turned an embarrassing shade of pink and pushed away from him, "Knock it off. You're so strange."
Miyata's answer was to sit on the table behind Tamamori and wrap his arms around Tama's stomach, pulling him close to whisper into his ear. "This is nice."
Together, they regarded the way Senga snuggled up under Nikaido's arm and pet the kitten resting quietly on Nika's chest and the way Yokoo and Kitayama sat next to each other on the couch, letting Fujigaya drape across both of them as they all paged through Miyata's gift.
"Yeah, it is." Tamamori agreed.
"Taipi is crazy. We have plenty of Member Ai."
Tamamori considered the way they'd all paired off, more-or-less, and the way innocent snuggles and cheerful giggles were quickly turning into fleeting touches and conspiratorial whispers. "Maybe a little too much."
"No such thing." Miyata kissed his temple warmly. "Merry Christmas."
"You'll stay the night, right?"
"Absolutely."
"Then wait and tell me tomorrow morning."
*End*
From: imifumei
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Title: A Very Kis-My-Christmas
Pairing/Group: HiroYoSuke, TamaMiya, SenKaido
Rating: PG-13, for innuendo
Warnings: None
Notes: Happy Holidays, quinnsan! I hope you have as much fun reading this as I had writing it! Thanks to my beta and T for support!
Summary: Kisumai has a Secret Santa. Everybody cheats (except Yokoo).
At the last Monday-morning meeting of November, Fujigaya was going to make an announcement. He'd sent phone-mails to each of his group-mates the night before to make sure they'd all be on-time and to raise the tension for his big moment.
He came into the meeting room late deliberately. He wanted to make sure everyone would be present for the announcement of his truly fantastic idea and he didn't want to have to wait for anyone to get to make it.
He strolled in at five past eight carrying two travel packs of coffees and passed them out with a huge grin splitting his glowing face to a chorus of five confused grumbles and Kitayama's soft, snuffling snore. What? He could be nice when he wanted to be, especially if there was something in it for him.
Finally he pulled the knit cap off his head, fluffed his hair up, and turned his best winning smile on his group, blinking pointedly at Yokoo until he shook Kitayama gently awake.
"Guys," Fujigaya began grandly, "This has been a big year for us work-wise." Fujigaya paused for effect.
When he didn't immediately continue, Kitayama quietly grumbled, "You woke me up for this? That's not breaking news, Taipi."
"However!" Taipi rolled right over him, "A series of recent events has indicated that we need to step up our game on our relationship." He looked around the room waiting for someone to ask him to elaborate.
"What relationship, Taipi?" Senga obliged.
"Our Member Ai," he explained.
This statement was met with a few incredulous looks and a fine view of the top of Kitayama's head as he snuggled his face back into his arms.
"You've got to be kidding." Tamamori complained.
"Nope. We've definitely got to work on it. It will make us a better group, and I have an idea for how we can do it." He offered them a triumphant look which didn't even flag in the face of Yokoo's intensely skeptical raised eyebrow and drawling challenge.
"What, exactly, do you propose?"
Fujigaya smiled and crowed exultantly, "Secret Santa!"
The collective groan of Kis-My-t2 resounded all the way down the hall followed closely by Yokoo's disapproving, "Really, Taipi?" while Tamamori whined "This again? Didn't we have this argument last year?" and Nikaido accused "This is stupid! You're just being lazy!"
Fujigaya pressed his hand to his chest in feigned affront and he scoffed, "Lazy?! I spent all night coming up with this plan!"
"You did not." Kitayama grumbled from within his folded arms.
"Well, all the way here, at least."
Nikaido piped up, "You just don't want to have to buy Christmas presents for everybody."
"We go through this every single, stupid year," Tamamori continued, "and every year you decide you'd rather receive presents from everybody even if it means you have to buy presents for everybody."
"Well, yes, but-" Taipi tried to explain before Miyata, always on hand with the benefit of the doubt, cut him off.
"Hang on, hang on. I don't get it. How will buying a present for only one other member increase our Member Ai?"
At this, Kitayama raised his head, looking to Fujigaya like a perplexed and sleepy puppy, "Actually, that's a good question. How does that work, Taipi?"
"Well, I was thinking that if we spent the time to think really hard about getting something really special for just one person, it would be a better bonding experience than getting just any old thing for six people."
"That sounds cool." Senga cheered.
"Yeah, it makes a lot of sense, surprisingly." Yokoo agreed.
"Hey, what do you mean 'surprisingly'?" Taipi pouted, but it was half-hearted because Miyata and Kitayama were slowly nodding their agreement with Yokoo and he could practically feel the imminent satisfaction of getting what he wanted.
When everyone was in agreement, Fujigaya cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Fantastic. Now, I think we're going to need a few ground rules. First of all, we need to cap this at a reasonable price. It's not a competition for most extravagant, so let's say 5000 yen?"
"Taipi is cheap" Senga whispered but he was giggling, so Taipi ignored the remark.
"5000 sound good?"
Everyone nodded.
"And," he continued, "it has to be a real gift that your recipient can open."
"As opposed to?" Yokoo questioned.
"As opposed to favors."
"Favors?" Miyata asked, confused.
"He means you can't give your recipient sex. You know, we aren't the ones who need to be told that," he inclined his head toward Senga and Nikaido with a knowing look.
"No?" Fujigaya challenged, looking from Miyata's face back to his and blinking innocently, earning a riotous blush from Tamamori.
"Well, anyway-" Tamamori ducked his head and motioned for Fujigaya to continue.
"Anyway. . .where was I? Oh yes, when should we do the exchange? I vote for Christmas Eve."
"Christmas Eve is a date night." Yokoo mentioned.
Taipi inhaled sharply, looking briefly to Kitayama, and asked "Do you expect to have a date, Watta?"
Kitayama's eyes surreptitiously slid over to gauge Yokoo's reaction.
"Not as such, no. I'm just saying. Some people might want to, you know, have a date. . . on a date night. . . is all."
Taipi surveyed the room and came to the same conclusion as Kitayama so he nodded along when Kitayama pronounced, "I genuinely doubt that anyone here intends to spend Christmas Eve with anyone who isn't here."
Miyata grinned. "Let's have a group date," he suggested, nodding so vehemently that despite the round of bashful hem-hawing, no one could say that didn't sound like a great idea.
Taipi decided to move on, "Now we just have to decide who gets to buy for whom."
"I want Nika!" Senga chimed in.
Nikaido smacked him over the head and explained, "That sort of defeats the purpose of it being secret, moron," quietly adding, "but that's nice, thanks."
Yokoo grabbed Fujigaya's hat up from the table and tore his day's itinerary into seven pieces, writing a letter on each one.
"Here, Taipi," he offered. Fujigaya passed the hat around for everyone to take a letter.
Taking the last one in the hat, he warned, "And remember, it's a secret! You can't let anyone know who you have! Definitely not the person you are buying for, okay?"
When he got six 'Okay's, he nodded to himself, satisfied that not only was he doing something nice for his group, but with the time he'd save not doing all the stupid shopping necessary to buy gifts for six people, he could spend the time doing something really important, like buying things for himself.
This was all going to work out great.
*Ki*
Kitayama would have disagreed. He had pulled Tamamori's name from the hat and was none too happy about it because he had no idea what would be best to get for him. After lots of agonizing, he'd narrowed down the possible gifts to two and neither was particularly inspired. He had just about resigned himself to the fact that he'd be getting Tama-chan either some socks or a personalized travel mug. At least he knew that Tama traveled enough to have a use for a travel mug, and everyone needed socks, right?
He was in a practice room worrying over whether he was the worst group leader ever for not being able to come up with a better gift, and practicing of course, when Nika came in.
"Kitamitsu, I have a problem."
"That's not very surprising."
"Aren't you going to ask me what the problem is?"
"Okay sure, what's the problem?"
"It's stupid Taipi."
Kitayama smirked, "Then I maintain my previous statement. 'That's not very surprising'."
"I don't know what to get for him."
"Aren't you supposed to be keeping it a secret who you're buying for?"
"Oh yeah. Well the only one who cares about that is Taipi, right? Besides. I already know that Tama-chan is buying for Miyata and Miyata is buying for Senga and Senga won't tell me who he's buying for, but I'll get it out of him sooner or later. But anyway I need help."
Kitayama sagely nodded, neglecting to mention how much he agreed with that statement or the fact that now he too knew who at least half the group was buying for.
Nika piped in, "Got any ideas?"
"I don't know. Why don't you just think about what Taipi likes best and get him something along those lines?"
"You mean besides being the center of attention?"
Kitayama couldn't exactly argue with that, but it gave him an idea. "What about that?"
"What about what?"
"What about giving him the gift of being the center of attention?"
"You mean like those coupon books that kids make for their moms in kindergarten? 'This coupon entitles you to one day of' fill-in-the-blank?"
"Oh hell no. Taipi would milk that for all it was worth. He'd be insufferable."
"So what do you mean then?"
"Pay someone else to do it."
"A Fresh Junior?"
That was seriously unlikely, Kitayama thought. "Maybe a spa would be better."
"That's a great idea! I'll buy him a facial or something! They can pamper him like the princess he acts like he is." He grinned widely at Kitayama. "Thanks! You're the best, Mitsu."
"Hey, sure. I do what I can." he called to Nika who was bounding happily out the door of the practice room. "Now if only I could come up with a great idea for Tama."
*S*
For as hard as they often worked, hardly anyone had lazing about down to the art form that certain members of Kisumai did. One afternoon found Kitayama snuggled into a broken down armchair in the green room of a photo shoot, Tamamori stretched out with his head on one arm of the couch while Senga sat on the opposite end, pillowing Tamamori's legs across his lap.
Senga was busy complaining that he had no idea what to get 'Nika's stupid face' for Christmas. Tamamori was reading a fashion magazine and making occasional 'uh-huh' noises to prove he was listening. Kitayama was failing to effectively zone-out. He didn't think he could take much more of Senga's whining.
Finally he offered his irked opinion, unbidden. "How can you possibly be having this much difficulty? You two are almost always together! You can't tell me he has never mentioned anything at all that he wanted in all the time you've spent together."
"But Taipi said no sex."
At that Kitayama and Tamamori broke down into rollicking, side-splitting laughter that Senga could not help but join in.
"Okay, okay, Ken-chan, that's fair." Kitayama finally quieted his laughter long enough to say. "But there must be something."
"I can't think of anything."
Tamamori giggled, "Just because you can't think of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
Senga pouted. "Oh yeah? Well what's your awesome idea for Miyata?"
Tamamori blushed. "I don't want to talk about it."
One of Kitayama's eyebrows shot up, "You know the 'no sex' rule applies to you too?"
"It's not sex!" Tamamori exclaimed defensively. "It's just that. . .it wasn't exactly my idea and it's sort of embarrassingly sappy."
"Whose idea was it?" Kitayama inquired.
"My mom's."
Senga scoffed, "Oh man. Help from your mom? That has to be cheating."
"You're just jealous because your mom didn't give you any great ideas." Tamamori countered and turned back to his magazine.
"Ugh! If I can't give him myself, what am I going to give him?"
Kitayama thought about it for a second while he watched Senga stretch cutely and rub his eyes with balled fists. "Something equally needy and cuddly perhaps?"
"Oh! Check out these jeans with skulls on the pockets," Tama thrust the magazine in front of Senga's face. "Aren't they cool? See how they bunch up at the bottom? I bet they don't come long enough to do that on me."
"Thanks for your concern about my problem, Tama-chan," Senga said sarcastically. "Oh, those are nice jeans." He handed the magazine back to Tamamori, turning back to Kitayama, "what do you mean 'equally needy and cuddly'?"
Kitayama's ears pricked up at the mention of something Tamamori was genuinely interested in. "What? I don't get to see the jeans?"
"Oh, sorry, sure," Tamamori apologized and tossed the magazine to him.
"Oh, those are nice." Kitayama, as non-nonchalantly as possible, made a note of where he could obtain said jeans, quickly getting interrupted by Senga impatiently leaning over and tugging on his shirt.
"Mitsu? What do you mean 'equally needy and cuddly'?"
"I mean why don't you get him something that has most of the characteristics that he seems to like in you?" At Senga's blank look he continued, "Maybe a kitten?"
Senga's eyes lit up, "Really? A kitten? I can do that? Oh a little kitten to cuddle and play with, is that really okay?"
"Well, you might want to check with his parents, but yeah. I mean who doesn't love kittens?"
"That's a great idea, Kitayama." Senga glowed with the prospect of getting a new kitten for all of five minutes before he found something new to whine about. "I'm bored. We've been sitting here for ages. Hey, you guys wanna practice the new dance moves?"
They had been doing nothing but running from appointment to appointment for months, ever since their tour had been announced. Now, for one blessed half-hour, they had nothing to do but sit and wait for their turn to pose for the camera. The thought of getting up to practice dancing was not especially a pleasant one. Kitayama and Tamamori shared a horrified look and answered him in unison, "No."
*M*
Everyone knew Senga loved to dance, that was no secret. But, Miyata thought, when you dance a lot you sweat a lot. Sweating a lot was something that Miyata spent a lot of time thinking about. It always made him feel a little uncomfortable and although he didn't mind the guys making fun of him, sometimes he really wished it wasn't about something he had no hope of controlling.
So, he decided, he'd get Gacchan a present that would help make sure that he never had to feel uncomfortable like Miyata himself sometimes did. It was important, so it wouldn't matter if he went a little over-budget. Besides, as an added bonus, Senga would look even better than when he danced in his regular tracksuit. Everyone loved to watch Gacchan dance, so really, this was a nice gift for the whole group.
*Y*
Buying for Kitayama is not difficult at all, Yokoo thought. There was something he always needed a new one of. Maybe if he didn't have such violent tendencies in bed, he wouldn't break so many of them. The only thing Yokoo couldn't decide was whether it would be better to spend his 5000 yen going for something really high-end and state-of-the-art, which would probably be most enjoyable for Mitsu, or several low-end ones that wouldn't be as pleasant but definitely serviceable and there would be back up when he broke them, which seemed inevitable.
In the end, he opted for both; one really nice one and six cheap 100-yen-store ones that he was sure Mitsu would barely even get up for. Yokoo kind of wanted to be there when he used the nice one, though. He was pretty sure he'd be able to coax Mitsu into letting him stay the night, even more likely if he invited Taipi to their little slumber party. Even for all his grumbling, Mitsu could almost never say no to Taipi. Hardly anyone could.
*F*
"This sucks," Fujigaya moaned and flomped onto the couch on top of Kitayama's prostrate form.
"Oi. Get off my back." Kitayama grumped toward the pillow into which his face was now being pressed a little harder.
Fujigaya wiggled around to get a little more comfortable and rested his chin on hands folded between Kitayama's shoulder blades, pouting and ignoring him. "You know, if I'd known I was going to get Watta, I'd never have made that stupid rule."
"The rule about not telling anybody at all who you are shopping for? That rule?" Kitayama groused.
"No, the sex rule."
Kitayama shoved at Fujigaya until he could get up and look him in the face. "Come on. We've known each other for years. He can't possibly be that hard to buy for."
Taipi threw himself backwards, melodramatically, over the arm of the couch, "Not hard, impossible. There's nothing he wants."
"Nothing at all? Maybe he'd like one of those creepy vacuum robots."
"Actually, that's not a bad idea, but do you really want to feed his cleaning obsession?"
"Good point. Well, you could just get him a new pair of-"
"I am not getting him something lame like pants."
"Hey. At least I didn't cheat."
Taipi gasped, offended. "Who cheated?"
*T*
Tamamori cheated. He hadn't meant to. He was just minding his own business, sitting at his kitchen table looking over some catalogs of silly gadgets that he was pretty sure Miyata would get a good chuckle out of when his mom came in offering hot chocolate and asking what he was doing..
"Shopping."
"I'm sorry?" she asked, "maybe I didn't hear correctly, did you just say you were shopping? Wasn't it only two weeks ago you were telling me that you were never going shopping again and blaming your father and myself for, what did you call it, 'the curse of both height and fashion sense'?"
"Well I didn't ask to be tall and have great taste in jeans, did I? Anyway this isn't for me."
"I suppose not. What are you shopping for?"
"I got Miyata for the group's Secret Santa and I don't know what to get for him. We're supposed to be increasing our Member Ai."
Tamamori-san peered over Tama's shoulder at the catalog. "And you think you're going to do that with a pair of sunglasses that double as an mp3 player or a fancy foot massager?"
"Well, no, but-"
"If it's supposed to be heartfelt, you could make him something."
Tama got a vision of kindergarten crafts with macaroni and tempera paints and groaned, "Mooooom! I can't make him something. We're grown men, you know." he punctuated his statement with a definitive sip of mommy-made hot chocolate.
"Sure you are. Why can't you make him something?"
"Umm, hello? Because 'Merry Christmas, here's a pasta mosaic of your face' is completely lame?"
Tamamori-san nodded, barely containing her mocking grin, "Yes, that would be lame."
Tama made a 'so you see the problem'-face and then his mother continued, "But that's not really what I was thinking. Miyata-kun loves you boys all very much and he's very proud to be part of your group. Why don't you make him a scrapbook of tour paraphernalia? I have tons of clippings and photos you could use."
Tama considered it. It was exactly the kind of thing that Miyata's sappy side would really appreciate but he was definitely going to need help with it and was pretty sure that there was some kind of unspoken rule that having your mommy help make your present was cheating. Oh well. Taipi would get over it.
*2*
Finding a high-class day spa that would give a facial for under 5000 yen was impossible. He'd have to cheat. However, Nika decided, probably if there was enough lotion and massaging involved, Taipi wouldn't think overly hard about how much this had cost. And what Taipi didn't know couldn't hurt either of them.
*******
On Christmas Eve, Tamamori-san invited them to gather at Tama's house and the seven of them weren't together five minutes before Senga started shifting uncomfortably. "When are we doing presents?" he asked Fujigaya.
Taipi began to shrug when he realized that they were all looking at him expecting an answer.
"It's your show, Taipi." Kitayama urged. "When do you want to do presents?"
"I want to do them now," Senga pleaded, holding his package as gingerly as possible behind his back.
"Now's good. What order should we go in? Oldest to youngest?" Senga frowned. "Tallest to shortest?" Kitayama frowned. "What? Kisumai order? I don't know. Why do I have to decide?"
"I want to go first." Senga claimed. "Please? It's important."
Yokoo spoke up. "I think we should play rock-paper-scissors to see who goes first. Then we can just go from there; the winner can give his gift and then his recipient can give his, and so on."
"Great. Sounds good." Taipi agreed.
Senga pouted when he lost but turned cheerful again when Miyata won and handed him a gift.
He tore into the paper and opened the box. Touching the fabric in contained, he looked to Miyata, "It's clothes, is it special?" He lifted the filmy black shirt and shorts out of the box and held them up to his body. "It looks special."
"It's a special fabric for athletes. It breathes really well and wicks sweat away from the body to keep you cool. It's for when you dance."
"It looks cool. Can I try it on now?" He was already heading for the bathroom to change and in no time at all came out clad from shoulder to knee in skin-tight black nylon fabric that left his arms bare and nothing to the imagination. He did a few test moves, not wanting to get to into it and disturb the Tamamoris' living room.
"How's it look?"
Five faces gaped openly back at him. Miyata was grinning so hard Senga could barely make out his eyes.
"It looks great Gacchan."
"Thanks!" Senga pulled his sweatpants on over the black shorts and sat back down next to Nikaido. "It's my turn now, right? I get to go?"
The question seemed to pull the others out of their mostly dirty thoughts and Fujigaya cleared his throat, "Yes. Go ahead, Senga."
"Yay." He turned to Nikaido and handed him his box gently, warning, "Don't shake it."
"Okay," Nika smiled and pulled the lid from the box to look inside at a jumbled mass of blue knit, then frowned at Senga. "This is your old scarf."
"What?" Senga peered over the edge of the box and saw the cinnamon-colored tuft of tiny tail peeking out from amidst the folds of what certainly was, as Nika had said, his old scarf. He breathed an audible sigh of relief and insisted, "Look harder."
Nika lifted the box and tilted it to one side, causing a flurry of skittering and the smallest sounding mewing anyone had ever heard as a bundle of blue scarf and warm brown fuzz fell out of the box and into his lap. The kitten squeaked a little, cuddled right into Nika's lap, and went back to sleep. Nika could only gape.
"It's a kitten." Senga informed him.
"I'd never have guessed." Nika answered blandly. "Just what I need in my life, another fuzzy little brown thing to train."
"And cuddle," Senga added. "Do you like him?"
Nika watched the little thing stretch and twist in his lap, revealing a soft pale belly, rubbing his paws over his eyes and yawning. "He's so cute and little. Of course I like him."
"I've named him Ken-chan."
"You can't name him for me, he's mine!" Nika scooped the little kitten up to snuggle against his cheek, "And you definitely can't name him after yourself. Can he, little guy? No he cannot."
"But-"
"We're not talking to you." Nika stated and stuck his tongue out, giggling. "It's Taipi's turn." Nikaido reached around Senga to grab an envelope from his bag and hand it over.
Fujigaya exclaimed over how jealous they would all be of his glowing skin after his facial and gave Yokoo his gift.
"Oh nice! You know Shige has one of these. I can set it to vacuum my room the whole time I'm gone! Thanks, Taipi." Fujigaya nodded and surreptitiously patted Kitayama on the back.
"Now for Hiromitsu." Yokoo got up to carry over a tower of boxes, each wrapped in a different color of paper. "Start at the top and work your way down."
Kitayama was pleased and amused until he started opening packages. "It's an alarm clock! Haha, very funny, Watta."
"Keep going."
Kitayama did, getting progressively more annoyed as he opened boxes getting progressively larger but still containing crappy 100-yen-store alarm clocks. By the fifth one he was ready to give up. "Thanks, Watta. I'll just open the rest of these later."
"No! You have to keep going."
Kitayama sighed and glared at the sixth stupid cheap alarm clock in a row before setting on the last package. It was much heavier than the first six, so he had a little hope for it. When he finally got the paper off he almost shouted because it was, in fact, another alarm clock, but this one was really cool looking.
"It's the best alarm clock ever." Yokoo explained. "First of all, you can choose from like twenty different alarm sounds or record your own, plus, each time the snooze comes on, it's progressively louder, and it actually moves away from you every time you press the snooze."
"What? Actually gets up and moves?"
"Well I think it has wheels or something, it's not possessed or anything. Ooh! And it shows you the weather and temperature outside and automatically syncs itself to the atomic clock in England someplace or another, and it projects all of that information onto the ceiling of your room so you don't even have to roll over to look at it."
"Wataru, this is the coolest alarm clock ever."
"Didn't I say?"
"Thank you. Really."
"No problem."
"Man my gift is going to look even more lame next to this." He pulled a box out from behind the couch and handed it to Tamamori. "It's nothing much."
Tamamori opened them and shrieked, "Oh my god! These are those awesome skull jeans." Running his fingers over the rhinestone skulls adorning the pockets, he marveled and then gasped when he picked them up and they looked long enough to fit hit properly. "They're longs. Thanks!"
"It's nothing." Kitayama smiled.
"Nothing?" Taipi exclaimed. "Don't let him fool you, Tama-chan. I went with him to buy them. We went to four stores and you should have seen the sales girls faces when he asked them for extra longs-"
Kitayama crossed his arms over his chest, "Shut up, Taipi."
"I don't think I've ever seen a girl laugh that hard before," Fujigaya finished.
"Well, thanks, Mitsu, I really wanted these." Tamamori beamed at Kitayama and he couldn't help but grin and shrug in return.
Everyone was laughing at Taipi's impression of the shop-girls when Tama shouted, "Oh! I almost forgot! I haven't given Miyacchi his gift. Why didn't you say something?"
"Everyone was having fun."
He scoffed and presented Miyata with a large book, carefully tied with wide purple ribbons.
"What is it?"
"Just open it!"
Miyata untied the ribbons and opened the book, smiling warmly at the inscription inside the front cover. When he met Tamamori's eyes and said "Me too," Tama blushed.
"What's it say?" Senga asked nosily from his place in Nikaido's lap.
"Nothing," answered Tama but Fujigaya could see over Miyata's shoulder and read it aloud.
"It says 'Toshiya, this year has been great. I hope we have many years like this together in our future. Love, Yuta' Aww, that's so sappy."
Tamamori said nothing.
"What's in the book, Miyata?" Yokoo asked.
"It's a scrapbook!" Miyata began turning pages. "It's a scrapbook of our whole year."
Kitayama leaned over Fujigaya so that he could also look over Miyata's shoulder, "A Kis-My Scrapbook?"
"Yeah." He turned a few more pages before handing the book over to the pile of Kitayama, Yokoo, and Fujigaya, who were encroaching on his space to laugh at the pictures of their group over the course of the last year. He left them to it and crossed the room to where Tamamori was helping his mother set out refreshments.
He hugged Tama tightly from behind, resting his face against the side of Tama's but addressing his mother. "Thank you for the book."
"It's no trouble, Miyata-kun. I'm glad you like it. Will you be staying the night?"
"Mom."
"Well? If you had already invited him, I wouldn't have to ask. Now, it's a date night, so your father and I have dinner reservations. Have fun, but don't let the boys upset the furniture too much. We won't be back until late." Then she turned to address Miyata, "You're certainly welcome to stay, okay?"
"Thank you, Tamamori-san."
Tamamori-san offered him an indulgent smile and left the room. Miyata turned Tama-chan around to face him an kissed him, quickly and sweetly. "Love you, too."
Tamamori turned an embarrassing shade of pink and pushed away from him, "Knock it off. You're so strange."
Miyata's answer was to sit on the table behind Tamamori and wrap his arms around Tama's stomach, pulling him close to whisper into his ear. "This is nice."
Together, they regarded the way Senga snuggled up under Nikaido's arm and pet the kitten resting quietly on Nika's chest and the way Yokoo and Kitayama sat next to each other on the couch, letting Fujigaya drape across both of them as they all paged through Miyata's gift.
"Yeah, it is." Tamamori agreed.
"Taipi is crazy. We have plenty of Member Ai."
Tamamori considered the way they'd all paired off, more-or-less, and the way innocent snuggles and cheerful giggles were quickly turning into fleeting touches and conspiratorial whispers. "Maybe a little too much."
"No such thing." Miyata kissed his temple warmly. "Merry Christmas."
"You'll stay the night, right?"
"Absolutely."
"Then wait and tell me tomorrow morning."
*End*